3 [](#readme)
5 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
6 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions)
7 [](LICENSE)
8 [](Collaborators.md#collaborators)
9 [](supportedsites.md)
10 []
(https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r)
11 []
(https://yt-dlp.readthedocs.io)
12 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
13 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
14 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
15 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
19 yt-dlp is a
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
21 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
22 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
23 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
25 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
27 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
28 * [General Options](#general-options)
29 * [Network Options](#network-options)
30 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
31 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
32 * [Download Options](#download-options)
33 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
34 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
35 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
36 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
37 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
38 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
39 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
40 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
41 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
42 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
43 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
44 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
45 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
46 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
47 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
48 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
49 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
51 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
52 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
53 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
54 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
55 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
57 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
58 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
59 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
60 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
61 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
67 The major new features from the latest release of
[blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
69 * **
[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
71 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using
`-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
73 * **Merged with youtube-dl
[commit/379f52a](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/379f52a4954013767219d25099cce9e0f9401961)**: (v2021.06
.06) You get all the latest features and patches of
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) in addition to all the features of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
75 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--write-comments`,
`BiliBiliSearch`,
`BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
77 * **Youtube improvements**:
78 * All Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
79 * Search (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
80 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
81 * Most (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
82 * Partial workaround for throttling issue
83 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
84 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
85 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded (
[except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
87 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]`
89 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
91 * **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use
`--concurrent-fragments` (
`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
93 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
95 * **New extractors**: AnimeLab, Philo MSO, Spectrum MSO, SlingTV MSO, Cablevision MSO, Rcs, Gedi, bitwave.tv, mildom, audius, zee5, mtv.it, wimtv, pluto.tv, niconico users, discoveryplus.in, mediathek, NFHSNetwork, nebula, ukcolumn, whowatch, MxplayerShow, parlview (au), YoutubeWebArchive, fancode, Saitosan, ShemarooMe, telemundo, VootSeries, SonyLIVSeries, HotstarSeries, VidioPremier, VidioLive, RCTIPlus, TBS Live, douyin, pornflip, ParamountPlusSeries, ScienceChannel, Utreon, OpenRec, BandcampMusic, blackboardcollaborate, eroprofile albums, mirrativ, BannedVideo, bilibili categories, Epicon, filmmodu, GabTV, HungamaAlbum, ManotoTV, Niconico search, Patreon User, peloton, ProjectVeritas, radiko, StarTV, tiktok user, Tokentube, voicy, TV2HuSeries, biliintl,
17live, NewgroundsUser, peertube channel/playlist, ZenYandex, CAM4, CGTN, damtomo, gotostage, Koo, Mediaite, Mediaklikk, MuseScore, nzherald, Olympics replay, radlive, SovietsCloset, Streamanity, Theta, Chingari
97 * **Fixed/improved extractors**: archive.org, roosterteeth.com, skyit, instagram, itv, SouthparkDe, spreaker, Vlive, akamai, ina, rumble, tennistv, amcnetworks, la7 podcasts, linuxacadamy, nitter, twitcasting, viu, crackle, curiositystream, mediasite, rmcdecouverte, sonyliv, tubi, tenplay, patreon, videa, yahoo, BravoTV, crunchyroll playlist, RTP, viki, Hotstar, vidio, vimeo, mediaset, Mxplayer, nbcolympics, ParamountPlus, Newgrounds, SAML Verizon login, Hungama, afreecatv, aljazeera, ATV, bitchute, camtube, CDA, eroprofile, facebook, HearThisAtIE, iwara, kakao, Motherless, Nova, peertube, pornhub, reddit, tiktok, TV2, TV2Hu, tv5mondeplus, VH1, Viafree, XHamster,
9Now, AnimalPlanet, Arte, CBC, Chingari, comedycentral, DIYNetwork, niconico, dw, funimation, globo, HiDive, NDR, Nuvid, Oreilly, pbs, plutotv, reddit, redtube, soundcloud, SpankBang, VrtNU
99 * **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See
[commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
101 * **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using
`--paths` (
`-P`)
103 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
105 * **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
107 * **Other new options**:
`--print`,
`--sleep-requests`,
`--convert-thumbnails`,
`--write-link`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
109 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in
`--match-filter`, multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
111 * **Plugin extractors**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
113 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
116 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
119 **PS**: Some of these changes are already in youtube-dlc, but are still unreleased. See [this](Changelog.md#unreleased-changes-in-blackjack4494yt-dlc) for details
121 If you are coming from
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl), the amount of changes are very large. Compare
[options](#options) and [supported sites](supportedsites.md) with youtube-dl's to get an idea of the massive number of features/patches [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) has accumulated.
123 ### Differences in default behavior
125 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc.
127 * The options
`--id`,
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
128 * `avconv` is not supported as as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
129 * The default [output template](#output-template) is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to
`%(title)s.%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use
`--compat-options filename`
130 * The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the
`--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use
`--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
131 * The default format selector is
`bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be prefered. Use
`-f bv+ba/b` or
`--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
132 * Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of
`-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using
`--audio-multistreams` and
`--video-multistreams`. You can also use
`--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
133 * `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
134 * When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use
`--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or
`--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
135 * `--add-metadata` attaches the
`infojson` to
`mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with
`--write-infojson`. Use
`--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
136 * `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like
`--playlist-reverse` and
`--playlist-items`. See
[#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use
`--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
137 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
138 * All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use
`--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
139 * Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use
`--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use
`--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
140 * Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to
`/video`. Append a
`/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent
`UU` playlist instead. Also,
`/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use
`--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
141 * Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
142 * If
`ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use
`--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
143 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
144 * Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use
`--no-clean-infojson` or
`--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
145 * When
`--embed-subs` and
`--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just
`--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the seperate file. See
[#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info.
`--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this.
147 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
148 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
149 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams`
150 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
154 yt-dlp is not platform specific. So it should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS
156 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
157 * Download the binary from the
[latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
158 * With Homebrew,
`brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
159 * Use
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp):
`python3 -m pip install --upgrade yt-dlp`
160 * Use pip+git:
`python3 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp.git@release`
161 * Install master branch:
`python3 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp`
163 Note that on some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`
165 UNIX users (Linux, macOS, BSD) can also install the
[latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) one of the following ways:
168 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
169 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
173 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
174 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
178 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
179 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
182 macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew (formerly known as Linuxbrew for Linux users) can also install it by:
185 brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
189 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the provided release.
190 If you are using
`pip`, simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program.
191 If you have installed using Homebrew, run
`brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
194 Python versions
3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
196 <!-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 -->
197 On windows,
[Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe) is also necessary to run yt-dlp. You probably already have this, but if the executable throws an error due to missing
`MSVCR100.dll` you need to install it manually.
199 While all the other dependancies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
200 * [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for
[merging seperate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. Licence [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
201 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licenced under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
202 * [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodomex) - For decrypting AES-
128 HLS streams and various other data. Licenced under
[BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodomex/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
203 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licenced under
[BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
204 * [**keyring**](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring) - For decrypting cookies of chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licenced under
[MIT](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/blob/main/LICENSE)
205 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licenced under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
206 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licenced under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
207 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or
[**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading
`rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licenced under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
208 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licenced under
[BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
209 * [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated**
[sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licenced under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
210 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
212 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
214 The windows releases are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.
216 **Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependancy, we provide
[custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds/wiki/Latest#latest-autobuilds) with patches for these issues at
[yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See
[the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specifc issues solved by these builds
222 To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets)
224 python3 -m pip install -U -r requirements.txt
226 Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, just run
`py pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (
32/
64 bit) as the python used to build it.
228 You can also build the executable without any version info or metadata by using:
230 pyinstaller.exe yt_dlp\__main__.py --onefile --name yt-dlp
232 Note that pyinstaller
[does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment
235 You will need the required build tools:
`python`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`,
`zip`,
`pytest`
236 Then simply run
`make`. You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
238 **Note**: In either platform,
`devscripts\update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
242 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
244 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
245 <!-- Auto generated -->
248 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
249 --version Print program version and exit
250 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
251 sure that you have sufficient permissions
252 (run with sudo if needed)
253 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
254 The download will be considered successfull
255 even if the postprocessing fails
256 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download
257 errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in
259 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
260 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
261 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
262 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
263 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
265 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
267 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
268 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
269 from google videos for the search term
270 "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let
271 yt-dlp guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
272 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
273 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
274 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
275 this is not possible instead of searching
276 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
277 except the one provided by --config-location.
278 When given inside a configuration
279 file, no further configuration files are
280 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
281 compatibility) if this option is found
282 inside the system configuration file, the
283 user configuration is not loaded
284 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
285 either the path to the config or its
287 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
289 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
290 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
291 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
292 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
293 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
294 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
295 configurations by reverting some of the
296 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
297 default behavior" for details
300 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
301 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
303 socks5://
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass in an empty
304 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
305 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
306 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
307 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
308 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
311 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
312 some geo-restricted sites. The default
313 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
314 option is not present) is used for the
316 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
317 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
318 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
319 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
320 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
321 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
323 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
324 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
328 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
329 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
330 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
331 indices of the videos in the playlist
332 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
333 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
334 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
335 specify range: "--playlist-items
336 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos
337 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13
338 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
339 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
340 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
341 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
343 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
344 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
345 "(now|today)[+-][
0-
9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
346 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
347 this date. The date formats accepted is the
349 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
350 this date. The date formats accepted is the
352 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
353 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
354 number or a string using the operators
355 defined in "Filtering formats". You can
356 also simply specify a field to match if the
357 field is present and "!field" to check if
358 the field is not present. In addition,
359 Python style regular expression matching
360 can be done using "~=", and multiple
361 filters can be checked with "&". Use a "
\"
362 to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
363 --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?
100
364 & description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'"
365 matches only videos that are not live, has
366 a like count more than
100 (or the like
367 field is not available), and also has a
368 description that contains the phrase "cats
369 & dogs" (ignoring case)
370 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
371 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
372 to a video and a playlist
373 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
374 a video and a playlist
375 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
377 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
378 archive file. Record the IDs of all
379 downloaded videos in it
380 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
381 a file that is in the archive
382 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
383 a file that has been filtered out
384 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
385 of the playlist is skipped
386 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
389 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
390 video that should be download concurrently
392 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
394 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
395 below which throttling is assumed and the
396 video data is re-extracted (e.g.
100K)
397 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
399 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
400 is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
402 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
403 hlsnative and ISM (default)
404 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
405 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
406 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
407 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
408 downloading is finished
409 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
410 downloading is finished (default)
411 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
413 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
414 from an initial value of --buffer-size
416 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
417 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
418 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
419 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
420 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
422 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
423 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
425 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
426 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
428 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
429 allowing some players to play the video
430 while downloading, and reducing the chance
431 of file corruption if download is
432 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
434 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
435 videos. This is default when not
436 downloading live streams
437 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
438 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
439 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
440 use it for. Currently supports native,
441 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
442 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
443 this option multiple times to set different
444 downloaders for different protocols. For
445 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
446 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
447 http/ftp downloads, and the native
448 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
449 (Alias: --external-downloader)
450 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
451 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
452 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
453 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to
454 different positions using the same syntax
455 as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
456 option multiple times to give different
457 arguments to different downloaders
458 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
460 ## Filesystem Options:
461 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
462 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
463 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
465 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
466 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
467 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
468 same types as --output are supported.
469 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
470 (default) and "temp" paths. All
471 intermediary files are first downloaded to
472 the temp path and then the final files are
473 moved over to the home path after download
474 is finished. This option is ignored if
475 --output is an absolute path
476 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
477 TEMPLATE" for details
478 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
479 fields in output filename template
481 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
482 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
484 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
486 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be windows compatible
487 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames windows compatible only if
488 using windows (default)
489 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
490 extension) to the specified number of
492 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
493 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
494 This option includes --no-continue
495 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
496 related files (default)
497 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
499 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
500 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
501 restart download of the entire file
502 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
503 into output file (default)
504 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
506 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
507 file modification time (default)
508 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
509 the file modification time
510 --write-description Write video description to a .description
512 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
513 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
514 (this may contain personal information)
515 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
516 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
517 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
518 --write-description etc. (default)
519 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
520 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
521 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
522 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
523 could still contain some personal
524 information (default)
525 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
526 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
527 infojson. The comments are fetched even
528 without this option if the extraction is
529 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
530 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
531 extraction is known to be quick
532 (Alias: --no-get-comments)
533 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
534 (created with the "--write-info-json"
536 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
538 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
540 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]
541 Load cookies from a user profile of the
542 given web browser. Currently supported
543 browsers are: brave, chrome, chromium,
544 edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi. You
545 can specify the user profile name or
546 directory using "BROWSER:PROFILE_NAME" or
547 "BROWSER:PROFILE_PATH". If no profile is
548 given, the most recently accessed one is
550 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
551 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
552 can store some downloaded information (such
553 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
554 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
556 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
557 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
559 ## Thumbnail Options:
560 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
561 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
563 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
564 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
565 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
567 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
568 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
569 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
570 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
571 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
572 OS caches the URL based on the file path
573 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
574 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
576 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
577 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with
578 --verbose, print the log to stderr
579 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
580 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
582 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
584 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Usefull
585 for extracting metadata even if the videos
586 are not actually available for download
588 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
589 formats are found (default)
590 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
591 related files (Alias: --no-download)
592 -O, --print TEMPLATE Quiet, but print the given fields for each
593 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
594 used. Either a field name or same syntax as
595 the output template can be used
596 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
597 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
598 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
599 description of available keys
600 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
601 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
602 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
603 a playlist, the whole playlist information
604 is dumped in a single line
605 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
606 written as far as no errors occur, even if
607 -s or another simulation option is used
608 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
609 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
610 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
611 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
612 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
613 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
614 Template for progress outputs, optionally
615 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
616 "download-title:" (the console title),
617 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
618 The video's fields are accessible under the
619 "info" key and the progress attributes are
620 accessible under "progress" key. Eg:
621 --console-title --progress-template
622 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
623 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
624 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
625 to debug problems (very verbose)
626 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
627 files in the current directory to debug
629 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
632 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
633 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
634 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
635 information about the video (Currently
636 supported only for YouTube)
637 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
638 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
639 access is restricted to one domain
640 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
641 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
642 option multiple times
643 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
644 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
645 or fribidi executable in PATH
646 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
647 during data extraction
648 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
649 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
650 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
651 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
652 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
653 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
654 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
657 ## Video Format Options:
658 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
660 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
661 "Sorting Formats" for more details
662 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
663 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
664 Formats" for more details
665 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
666 specified sort order (default), see
667 "Sorting Formats" for more details
668 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
670 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
671 each output file (default)
672 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
674 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
675 each output file (default)
676 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
677 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
678 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
679 containers irrespective of quality
680 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
682 --check-formats Check that the formats selected are
683 actually downloadable
684 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats selected are
685 actually downloadable
686 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
687 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
688 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
689 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
690 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
691 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
694 --write-subs Write subtitle file
695 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
696 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
697 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
698 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
699 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
700 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
701 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
702 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
703 preference, for example: "srt" or
705 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
706 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
707 (Eg: --sub-langs en.*,ja) You can prefix
708 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
709 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
710 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
711 list of available language tags
713 ## Authentication Options:
714 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
715 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
716 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
717 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
718 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
719 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
720 either the path or its containing
721 directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
722 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
723 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
724 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
725 a list of available MSOs
726 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
727 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
728 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
730 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
733 ## Post-Processing Options:
734 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
735 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
736 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
737 to when -x is used. Currently supported
738 formats are: best (default) or one of
739 best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav
740 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
741 value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse) for
742 VBR or a specific bitrate like
128K
744 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
745 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
746 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
747 target container does not support the
748 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
749 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
750 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
751 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
752 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
753 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
754 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
755 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
756 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
757 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
758 to give the argument to the specified
759 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
760 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
761 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
762 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
763 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
764 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
765 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
766 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
767 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
768 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
769 specified executable only when being used
770 by the specified postprocessor.
771 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
772 can be appended to the prefix optionally
773 followed by a number to pass the argument
774 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
775 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
776 use this option multiple times to give
777 different arguments to different
778 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
779 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
780 after post-processing
781 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
782 post-processing (default)
783 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
784 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
785 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
787 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
788 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
789 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
790 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also adds
791 chapters to file unless --no-add-chapters
792 is used (Alias: --add-metadata)
793 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
794 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
795 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
796 (Alias: --add-chapters)
797 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default)
798 (Alias: --no-add-chapters)
799 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
800 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
802 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
803 Replace text in a metadata field using the
804 given regex. This option can be used
806 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
807 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
808 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
809 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
810 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
811 default; fix file if we can, warn
812 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
814 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
815 path to the binary or its containing
817 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
818 downloading and post-processing. Same
819 syntax as the output template can be used
820 to pass any field as arguments to the
821 command. An additional field "filepath"
822 that contains the final path of the
823 downloaded file is also available. If no
824 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
825 to the end of the command. This option can
826 be used multiple times
827 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
828 --exec-before-download CMD Execute a command before the actual
829 download. The syntax is the same as --exec
830 but "filepath" is not available. This
831 option can be used multiple times
832 --no-exec-before-download Remove any previously defined
833 --exec-before-download
834 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
835 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
836 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
837 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
838 (currently supported: jpg|png)
839 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
840 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
841 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
842 to set the output filename for the split
843 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
844 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
846 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
847 given regular expression. This option can
848 be used multiple times
849 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
851 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
852 removing/splitting them. Requires a
853 reencode and thus is very slow, but the
854 resulting video may have fewer artifacts
856 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
857 when cutting/splitting (default)
858 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
859 postprocessors to be enabled, and
860 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
861 seperated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
862 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
863 The "when" argument determines when the
864 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
865 "pre_process" (after extraction),
866 "before_dl" (before video download),
867 "post_process" (after video download;
868 default) or "after_move" (after moving file
869 to their final locations). This option can
870 be used multiple times to add different
873 ## SponsorBlock Options:
874 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
875 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
876 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
878 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
879 for, separated by commas. Available
880 categories are all, sponsor, intro, outro,
881 selfpromo, interaction, preview,
882 music_offtopic. You can prefix the category
883 with a "-" to exempt it. See
884 https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/index.php/Segment_Categories
885 for description of the categories. Eg:
886 --sponsorblock-query all,-preview
887 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
888 the video file, separated by commas. If a
889 category is present in both mark and
890 remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax
891 and available categories are the same as
892 for --sponsorblock-mark
893 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
894 The title template for SponsorBlock
895 chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark.
896 The same syntax as the output template is
897 used, but the only available fields are
898 start_time, end_time, category, categories,
899 name, category_names. Defaults to
900 "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
901 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
902 --sponsorblock-remove
903 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
904 https://sponsor.ajay.app
906 ## Extractor Options:
907 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
908 errors (default is
3), or "infinite"
909 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
910 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
911 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
912 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
913 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
914 discontinuities such as ad breaks
915 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
916 formats at discontinuities such as ad
918 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
919 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
920 use this option multiple times to give
921 arguments for different extractors
925 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
927 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
928 1. **Portable Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (
`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
929 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
930 1. **User Configuration**:
931 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
932 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
933 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
934 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
936 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
938 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to
`~/.config` if undefined. On windows,
`~` points to %HOME% if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`.
939 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
941 For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under
`YouTube` directory in your home directory:
943 # Lines starting with # are comments
945 # Always extract audio
948 # Do not copy the mtime
952 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
954 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
955 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
958 Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after
`-` or
`--`, e.g.
`-o` or
`--proxy` but not
`- o` or
`-- proxy`.
960 You can use
`--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If
`--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of user and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if
`--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
962 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
964 You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with
`--username` and
`--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a
[`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a
`.netrc` file in
`--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
967 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
969 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
971 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
975 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
976 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
978 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
980 The default location of the .netrc file is
`$HOME` (
`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
984 The
`-o` option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while
`-P` option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.
986 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
988 The simplest usage of
`-o` is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in
`yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"` (hard-coding file extension like this is _not_ recommended and could break some post-processing).
990 It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to
[python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting). For example,
`%(NAME)s` or
`%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
992 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
993 1. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a
`.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using
`:`. Eg:
`%(tags.0)s`,
`%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`,
`%(id.3:7:-1)s`,
`%(formats.:.format_id)s`.
`%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use
`-j` to see such fields
994 1. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using
`+` and
`-` respectively. Eg:
`%(playlist_index+10)03d`,
`%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
995 1. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to
[strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a
`>`. Eg:
`%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`,
`%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`,
`%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
996 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified seperated with a
`,`. Eg:
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
997 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a
`|` seperator. This overrides
`--output-na-template`. Eg:
`%(uploader|Unknown)s`
998 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types
`diouxXeEfFgGcrs`,
`B`,
`j`,
`l`,
`q` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son, a comma seperated **l**ist (alternate form flag
`#` makes it new line
`\n` seperated) and a string **q**uoted for the terminal, respectively
999 1. **Unicode normalization**: The format type
`U` can be used for NFC
[unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (
`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag
`+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. Eg:
`%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
1001 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1003 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1006 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon
`:`. The different file types supported are
`subtitle`,
`thumbnail`,
`description`,
`annotation` (deprecated),
`infojson`,
`pl_thumbnail`,
`pl_description`,
`pl_infojson`,
`chapter`. For example,
`-o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' -o 'thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s'` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates (except default) is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg:
`--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
1008 The available fields are:
1010 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1011 - `title` (string): Video title
1012 - `url` (string): Video URL
1013 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1014 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1015 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1016 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1017 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1018 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1019 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1020 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1021 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
1022 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
1023 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1024 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1025 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1026 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1027 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1028 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1029 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1030 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1031 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1032 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1033 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1034 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1035 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video (For some extractors, comments are only downloaded at the end, and so this field cannot be used)
1036 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1037 - `live_status` (string): One of 'is_live', 'was_live', 'is_upcoming', 'not_live'
1038 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1039 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1040 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1041 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
1042 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1043 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1044 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
1045 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
1046 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1047 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1048 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1049 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1050 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1051 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1052 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1053 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1054 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1055 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
1056 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1057 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1058 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1059 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1060 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1061 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1062 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1063 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
1064 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
1065 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1066 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
1067 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1068 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1069 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
1070 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
1071 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1072 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1073 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1074 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1076 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1078 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1079 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1080 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1082 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1084 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1085 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1086 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1087 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1088 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1089 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1090 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1092 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1094 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1095 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1096 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1097 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1098 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1099 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1100 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1101 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1102 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1103 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1105 Available for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1107 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1108 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1109 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1110 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1112 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1114 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1115 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use
`--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
1117 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1119 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1120 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1121 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1122 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1123 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1124 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1126 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with
`--output-na-placeholder` (
`NA` by default).
1128 For example for
`-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title
`yt-dlp test video` and id
`BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a
`yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1130 For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example,
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
1132 Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g.
`-o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s'` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
1134 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1136 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1138 In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an
8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the
`--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title:
1140 #### Output template and Windows batch files
1142 If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (
`%`) by doubling, so that
`-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become
`-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch
`%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact:
`-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
1144 #### Output template examples
1146 Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
1149 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
1150 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
1152 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1153 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
1155 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1156 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
1158 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1159 $ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
1161 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1162 $ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
1164 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1165 $ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P '~/MyVideos' -o '%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/
1167 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1168 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
1170 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1171 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1176 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1177 This is generally equivalent to using
`-f bestvideo*+bestaudio/best`. However, if multiple audiostreams is enabled (
`--audio-multistreams`), the default format changes to
`-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best`. Similarly, if ffmpeg is unavailable, or if you use yt-dlp to stream to
`stdout` (
`-o -`), the default becomes
`-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.
1179 The general syntax for format selection is
`-f FORMAT` (or
`--format FORMAT`) where
`FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
1181 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1183 The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with
`-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to
22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using
`--list-formats` or
`-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
1185 You can also use a file extension (currently
`3gp`,
`aac`,
`flv`,
`m4a`,
`mp3`,
`mp4`,
`ogg`,
`wav`,
`webm` are supported) to download the best quality format of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g.
`-f webm` will download the best quality format with the
`webm` extension served as a single file.
1187 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1189 - `all`: Select all formats
1190 - `mergeall`: Select and merge all formats (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1191 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
1192 - `w*`,
`worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
1193 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1194 - `w`,
`worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1195 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1196 - `wv`,
`worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec=none]`
1197 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1198 - `wv*`,
`worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none]`
1199 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1200 - `wa`,
`worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec=none]`
1201 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]`
1202 - `wa*`,
`worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec!=none]`
1204 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use
`-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use
`worst` and related options. When your format selector is
`worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use
`-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of
`-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1206 You can select the n'th best format of a type by using
`best<type>.<n>`. For example,
`best.2` will select the
2nd best combined format. Similarly,
`bv*.3` will select the
3rd best format that contains a video stream.
1208 If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example
`-f 22/17/18` will download format
22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format
17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format
18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
1210 If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as a separator, e.g.
`-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or a more sophisticated example combined with the precedence feature:
`-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
1212 You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using
`-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example
`-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1214 **Deprecation warning**: Since the *below* described behavior is complex and counter-intuitive, this will be removed and multistreams will be enabled by default in the future. A new operator will be instead added to limit formats to single audio/video
1216 Unless
`--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless
`--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example,
`-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all
3 given formats. The resulting file will have
2 video streams and
2 audio streams. But
`-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only
`bestvideo` and
`bestaudio`.
`best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (
`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important.
`-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download and merge both formats while
`-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore
`best` and download only
`bestaudio`.
1218 ## Filtering Formats
1220 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in
`-f "best[height=720]"` (or
`-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1222 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
`<`,
`<=`,
`>`,
`>=`,
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals):
1224 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1225 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1226 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1227 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1228 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1229 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1230 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1233 Also filtering work for comparisons
`=` (equals),
`^=` (starts with),
`$=` (ends with),
`*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1235 - `ext`: File extension
1236 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1237 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1238 - `container`: Name of the container format
1239 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (
`http`,
`https`,
`rtsp`,
`rtmp`,
`rtmpe`,
`mms`,
`f4m`,
`ism`,
`http_dash_segments`,
`m3u8`, or
`m3u8_native`)
1240 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1241 - `language`: Language code
1243 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation
`!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g.
`!*=` (does not contain).
1245 Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
1247 Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (
`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so
`-f "[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to
720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least
500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with
`all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter. For example,
`-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
1249 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than
480 you can use
`-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
1253 You can change the criteria for being considered the
`best` by using
`-S` (
`--format-sort`). The general format for this is
`--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1255 The available fields are:
1257 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1258 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1259 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1260 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
1261 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
1262 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
1263 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (
`https`/
`ftps` >
`http`/
`ftp` >
`m3u8_native`/
`m3u8` >
`http_dash_segments`>
`websocket_frag` > other >
`mms`/
`rtsp` > unknown >
`f4f`/
`f4m`)
1264 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (
`av01` >
`vp9.2` >
`vp9` >
`h265` >
`h264` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` > other > unknown)
1265 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (
`opus` >
`vorbis` >
`aac` >
`mp4a` >
`mp3` >
`ac3` >
`dts` > other > unknown)
1266 - `codec`: Equivalent to
`vcodec,acodec`
1267 - `vext`: Video Extension (
`mp4` >
`webm` >
`flv` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used,
`webm` is prefered.
1268 - `aext`: Audio Extension (
`m4a` >
`aac` >
`mp3` >
`ogg` >
`opus` >
`webm` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to
`opus` >
`ogg` >
`webm` >
`m4a` >
`mp3` >
`aac`.
1269 - `ext`: Equivalent to
`vext,aext`
1270 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.
1271 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1272 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1273 - `height`: Height of video
1274 - `width`: Width of video
1275 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1276 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1277 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1278 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1279 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1280 - `br`: Equivalent to using
`tbr,vbr,abr`
1281 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1283 **Deprecation warning**: Many of these fields have (currently undocumented) aliases, that may be removed in a future version. It is recommended to use only the documented field names.
1285 All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a
`+`. Eg:
`+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a
`:`. Eg:
`res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than
720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than
720p. For
`codec` and
`ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg:
`+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to
`+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to
`h264` >
`h265` >
`vp9` >
`vp9.2` >
`av01` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` and audio codec preference to
`mp4a` >
`aac` >
`vorbis` >
`opus` >
`mp3` >
`ac3` >
`dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using
`~` as the delimiter. Eg:
`filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to
1 GiB.
1287 The fields
`hasvid` and
`ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using
`--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is:
`lang,quality,res,fps,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1289 Note that the default has
`codec:vp9.2`; i.e.
`av1` is not prefered
1291 If your format selector is
`worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all respects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use
`-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps`.
1293 **Tip**: You can use the
`-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1295 ## Format Selection examples
1297 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1300 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1301 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1302 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
1304 # Download best format that contains video,
1305 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1306 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
1311 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1312 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1313 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1314 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
1316 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1317 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1318 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
1320 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1321 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1322 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
1325 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1326 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1328 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1329 $ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
1331 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1334 # Download the smallest video available
1335 $ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
1339 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1340 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
1342 # Download the best video with the best extension
1343 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1348 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1349 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1350 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
1352 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1353 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1354 $ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
1356 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1357 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1358 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1359 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1360 $ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
1364 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1365 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1366 $ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
1368 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1369 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1370 $ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
1372 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1373 $ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
1377 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1378 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1379 $ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1381 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1382 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1387 # Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
1388 $ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1390 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1391 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1392 $ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
1394 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1395 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1396 $ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
1400 # More complex examples
1402 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1403 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1404 $ yt-dlp -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)'
1406 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1407 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1408 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1409 $ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
1413 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1414 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1415 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1416 $ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
1419 # MODIFYING METADATA
1421 The metadata obtained the the extractors can be modified by using
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
1423 `--replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE` is used to replace text in any metadata field using
[python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax).
[Backreferences](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html?highlight=backreferences#re.sub) can be used in the replace string for advanced use.
1425 The general syntax of
`--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an
[output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only
`%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for
`TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
1427 Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using
`--add-metadata`.
1429 This option also has a few special uses:
1430 * You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field
`additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. Eg:
`--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
1431 * You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a
`meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to
`meta_description` field will be added to the
`description` field in the file. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis"
1433 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1435 Metadata fields|From
1437 `title`|
`track` or
`title`
1438 `date`|
`upload_date`
1439 `description`,
`synopsis`|
`description`
1440 `purl`,
`comment`|
`webpage_url`
1441 `track`|
`track_number`
1442 `artist`|
`artist`,
`creator`,
`uploader` or
`uploader_id`
1445 `album_artist`|
`album_artist`
1446 `disc`|
`disc_number`
1448 `season_number`|
`season_number`
1449 `episode_id`|
`episode` or
`episode_id`
1450 `episode_sort`|
`episode_number`
1451 `language` of each stream|From the format's
`language`
1452 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1455 ## Modifying metadata examples
1457 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1460 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1461 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
1464 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
1466 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1467 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
1469 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
1470 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
1472 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1473 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata 'title,uploader' '[ _]' '-'
1477 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1479 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using
`--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`.
`ARGS` is a
`;` (semicolon) seperated string of
`ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg:
`--extractor-args "youtube:player_client=android_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
1481 The following extractors use this feature:
1483 * `skip`:
`hls` or
`dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
1484 * `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are
`web`,
`android`,
`ios`,
`mweb`. These also have
`_music`,
`_embedded`,
`_agegate`, and
`_creator` variants (Eg:
`web_embedded`) (
`mweb` has only
`_agegate`). By default,
`android,web` is used, but the agegate and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for
`music.youtube.com` urls. You can also use
`all` to use all the clients
1485 * `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of
`configs` (skip client configs),
`webpage` (skip initial webpage),
`js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See
[#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
1486 * `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats (These formats don't download properly)
1487 * `comment_sort`:
`top` or
`new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side).
1488 * `max_comments`: Maximum amount of comments to download (default all).
1489 * `max_comment_depth`: Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths
1 or
2 (default).
1491 (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1492 * `skip`: One or more of
`webpage` (skip initial webpage download),
`authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see
[#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
1495 * `language`: Languages to extract. Eg:
`funimation:language=english,japanese`
1496 * `version`: The video version to extract -
`uncut` or
`simulcast`
1499 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of
`episodes`,
`movies`,
`clips`,
`trailers`
1501 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1506 Plugins are loaded from
`<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`; where
`<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (
`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (
`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`). Plugins are currently not supported for the
`pip` version
1508 Plugins can be of
`<type>`s
`extractor` or
`postprocessor`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using
`--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1510 See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1512 Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code
1514 If you are a plugin author, add
[ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
1520 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1522 Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as
`-J`,
`--print`,
`--progress-template`,
`--exec` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.
1524 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1530 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1531 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1534 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [
`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L154-L452).
1536 Here's a more complete example of a program that outputs only errors (and a short message after the download is finished), converts the video to an mp3 file, implements a custom postprocessor and prints the final info_dict as json:
1542 from yt_dlp.postprocessor.common import PostProcessor
1546 def debug(self, msg):
1547 # For compatability with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1548 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1549 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1554 def info(self, msg):
1557 def warning(self, msg):
1560 def error(self, msg):
1564 class MyCustomPP(PostProcessor):
1565 def run(self, info):
1566 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1571 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1572 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1576 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
1577 'postprocessors': [{
1578 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1579 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
1580 'preferredquality': '192',
1582 'logger': MyLogger(),
1583 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1586 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1587 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1588 info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
1589 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1592 See the public functions in [
`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py) for other available functions. Eg:
`ydl.download`,
`ydl.download_with_info_file`
1595 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1597 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1599 #### Redundant options
1600 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
1602 --get-description --print description
1603 --get-duration --print duration_string
1604 --get-filename --print filename
1605 --get-format --print format
1607 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1608 -e, --get-title --print title
1609 -g, --get-url --print urls
1610 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
1611 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1612 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1613 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1614 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
1617 #### Not recommended
1618 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1620 --all-formats -f all
1621 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
1622 --print-json -j --no-simulate
1623 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)
03d
1624 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
1625 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
1626 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1627 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
1628 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1629 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
1630 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1631 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1632 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1633 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
1636 #### Developer options
1637 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
1639 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
1640 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
1641 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
1642 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
1646 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1648 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1649 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1650 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1651 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1652 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1653 --load-info --load-info-json
1654 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
1655 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
1656 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1657 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
1658 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1659 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
1660 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
1661 --write-srt --write-subs
1662 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
1664 #### Sponskrub Options
1665 Support for
[SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of
`--sponsorblock`
1667 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
1668 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
1669 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
1670 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
1671 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
1672 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
1673 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
1674 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
1676 #### No longer supported
1677 These options may no longer work as intended
1679 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1680 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1681 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1682 --no-call-home Default
1683 --include-ads No longer supported
1684 --no-include-ads Default
1685 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
1686 --no-write-annotations Default
1689 These options were deprecated since
2014 and have now been entirely removed
1691 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1692 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1693 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1694 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1697 See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
1700 For FAQ see the
[youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
projects / yt-dlp.git / blob